Nicola Rao (Latina, 30 October 1962) is an Italian journalist and essayist.
A professional journalist since 1989, since 1987 he has worked in Rome for the Adnkronos news agency, initially as a court reporter, following the activities of the CSM, the Ministry of Justice, as well as the major investigations on terrorism in Italy and Cosa Nostra.
In 1988 he interviewed, exclusively Adnkronos for the weekly Epoca, Mario Tuti (at the time detained in the superprison of Voghera) who, for the first time, told his story and announced that he wanted to end the armed struggle. In the same year he published the statements of the former PCI parliamentarian Sergio Flamigni (author of numerous books on the Moro case), who revealed to him that he had learned from two detained brigade members (Lauro Azzolini and Franco Bonisoli), that in reality Moro’s jailers were four (and not three, as was thought) and that the “engineer Altobelli” was not Mario Moretti, but another terrorist still unknown.
Revelations confirmed years later by the confessions of Adriana Faranda, who will indicate Germano Maccari as the ‘fourth man’ of the ‘prison’ of Via Montalcini. In 1993, he interviewed the prosecutor Antonio Marini, who for the first time confirmed the veracity of Faranda’s accusations.
On May 15, 1991, ten years after the assassination attempt on John Paul II, he signed an interview for Adnkronos on the Bulgarian track, carried out in prison in Ali Ağca, published the next day on the front page of the Corriere della Sera.
Also for Adnkronos editions, between the end of the eighties and the early 90s he contributed to the drafting of special notebooks on Italian and international terrorism, signing a reportage on Corsican independent terrorism and an interview with several voices with some leaders of the BR still detained, including Prospero Gallinari and Bruno Seghetti.
In December 1993 he was the first journalist in Italy to write that behind the massacres of the two-year period 1992-1993 there was the hand of Cosa Nostra, which wanted to force the state not to renew the 41 bis for mafia prisoners.
For these launches, also signed for Adnkronos, in August 2012 he was heard by the anti-mafia pool of the Palermo prosecutor’s office, which was investigating the State-Mafia negotiations, as a person informed about the facts. On November 12, 2015, again on the same agency launches, he was heard in the first instance trial on the State-Mafia negotiation, in the bunker courtroom of Palermo.
Since 1996 he has worked, again for Adnkronos, as a parliamentary journalist, following the political and institutional activities of governments and parties on a daily basis, until 2003.
In Rai:
He joined Rai, from 2003 to 2010 he worked at TG2 always as a parliamentary journalist, first as head of service and then as deputy editor-in-chief of the political editorial staff.
In February 2008 he made a documentary for TG2 Dossier, 30 years after the Moro case, entitled 1978. The longest winter.
From 1 February 2010 to 30 September 2017 he held the position of head of the editorial staff of TGR Lazio, with the functions of central editor-in-chief.
He was deputy director of the regional newspaper from 1 October 2017 to 26 December 2021.
He was deputy director of TG1 from 27 December 2021 to 19 December 2022.
Director of TG2 from 19 December 2022 to 31 May 2023.
Since 31 May 2023 he has been Director of Communications at Rai.
Member of the board of directors of the Parliamentary Press Association in 2003, he was re-elected to the same position in 2006 and 2009.
For years he has conducted research on the phenomena of national and international terrorism, publishing books with the publishing houses Mursia, Sperling & Kupfer and Piemme, dealing with both black terrorism and red terrorism.
Since February 2019 he has also been a member of the board of directors of the Ugo Spirito and Renzo De Felice Foundation.
His latest literary effort Il tempo delle chiavi. The Ramelli murder and the season of intolerance (Edizioni Piemme 2024).
In Italy, intolerance, political violence and terrorism characterized the entire seventies and early eighties. From the massacre of Piazza Fontana to the dismantling of the armed organizations of the left and right, 13 years have passed. 13 years of massacres, murders, injuries, mutilations, bomb attacks, clashes, devastation. 13 years of physical and psychological, public and private violence. In Milan, in 1975, in a leaden city shrouded in a grip of extremism, Sergio Ramelli – an eighteen-year-old right-wing student – was attacked with wrenches by a group of militants of the extra-parliamentary left, dying after 47 days of agony. A full-blown ambush that ended in tragedy. With a cinematographic style reminiscent of Elio Petri’s films, Nicola Rao reconstructs the days, weeks, months, years of clashes, demonstrations, street warfare, punitive expeditions in the Milanese city; of the hundreds of attacks with wrenches, organized by ultra-left groups; of the wounded, the dead and the trials following the bloody events; Many documents archived and found for the first time, unpublished testimonies, of yesterday and today, of more or less known protagonists, of those who were there and remember. “The Time of the Keys” is a courageous book that, fifty years later, investigates and denounces not only the culprits and the conniving, but the great process of repression that a large part of Italian society consciously or unconsciously implemented.
“The Time of the Keys” by Nicola Rao is a book that deals with a dark and violent period of Italian history, characterized by intolerance, political violence and terrorism. The seventies and early eighties were marked by massacres, murders, attacks and clashes between right-wing and left-wing extremist groups. The tragic story of Sergio Ramelli, a right-wing student attacked and killed in 1975, is one of the emblematic episodes of that period.
Rao reconstructs the events of those years in a cinematic style, based on archived documents and unpublished testimonies. The book not only denounces the culprits and connivers, but also the process of removal that part of Italian society has implemented regarding those facts.
The tragic story of Sergio Ramelli, which took place almost fifty years ago, remains one of the most significant and painful episodes of the period of the years of lead in Italy. Ramelli, a young student persecuted and killed for his political ideas, represents an extreme example of the violence and fanaticism that characterized those years.
Remembering events like this is crucial to understanding the past and preventing similar atrocities from happening again. It is important to educate the new generations about the recent history of our country, so that they can develop a critical conscience and a commitment to peace and tolerance.
Rao highlights the need to tell and remember these events to honor the victims and to promote a more just and aware society.
The book “The Time of the Keys” by Nicola Rao does not limit itself to dealing with the murder of Sergio Ramelli, but also explores the context of widespread violence between 1972 and 1976, during which many people were attacked with wrenches, suffering serious physical consequences. The tragic case of Ramelli is emblematic of A real street war that has often been neglected in historical accounts, despite the numerous victims and wounded.
This dark period was characterized by violent clashes not only in the streets, but also inside schools and universities, as evidenced by the episode at the Parini high school with Sergio Spagnolo. This creeping war, less known than other tragic events such as the Moro case, deserves to be remembered in order to fully understand the extent of political violence in those years.
If you are interested in learning more about this topic, I recommend reading the book to get a more complete and detailed view of that historical period.